Des Moines, Iowa — The director of the newly merged Iowa Department of Health and Human Services says the structure closes gaps in programs that were managed by two separate agencies.
Iowa HHS director Kelly Garcia now oversees a full-time staff of 45 hundred and about thousand private contractors who work on state programs.
Garcia was hired to lead the Iowa Department of Human Services in the fall of 2019. She was named acting director of the Iowa Department of Public Health in mid-2020. Those two agencies merged on July 1st. Garcia and her staff are now working on a plan to bring the Department on Aging into the agency.
Garcia says Iowa Department on Aging director Linda Miller is a long-time advocate for a better connection with the Medicaid program, which is part of Garcia’s department.
Iowa HHS manages the Medicaid program as well as food stamps and foster care. It investigates allegations of child abuse and is the lead agency in responding to public health emergencies. Democrats in the legislature have raised concerns that the new agency is too large and some functions may suffer. Garcia held several administrative positions in the Texas Department of Health and Human Services Commission before coming to Iowa and she says that was a good training ground for what big agencies look like.
Garcia says accountability in state government for key public health and social service programs was spread among agencies and the merger establishes clear lines of responsibility in a single agency.
